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Thread: Electric welder to thaw frozen water pipes

  1. #1

    Electric welder to thaw frozen water pipes

    This must be something new. I never heard of thawing frozen water pipes with a Hobart welder.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Ada, Oklahoma
    Posts
    443
    Welders have been used around here and in Kansas where we used to live for a long time. As I understand it only works if your pipes are metal.
    Hopefully you are not needing it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    46
    i have done it many times. You just attach one cable clamp to the start of the water line and the other cable to the end. Turn on the welder and bring up the power. It is a short circuit and it creates heat in the conductor which is the metallic water line. That thaws the ice. But these days most buried lines are plastic which obviously will not work.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Toronto Ontario
    Posts
    11,247
    Quote Originally Posted by Clarence Martin View Post
    This must be something new. I never heard of thawing frozen water pipes with a Hobart welder.
    Well, it wasn't new when I was doing it almost 40 years ago.

    You need to make sure you don't exceed the duty cycle of your welder and you need access to the pipe on each end of the frozen section........Regards, Rod.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Smithfield, Va
    Posts
    328
    If it's soldered copper pipe be careful not to get it too hot. I have seen one occurrence where the solder melted. The results were not pretty.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    N.E, Ohio
    Posts
    3,026
    Saw this done a number of years ago to a neighbor whose water line from the street to the house froze. It was in Louisville Ky where they only bury the water lines about 18" deep. They had a cold winter with minimal snow cover. They water dept wanted everyone to keep their water running at the rate of a quart of per minute and they credited your water cost to what it was the same period the prior year.

    Like has been said it works of it is a copper line and it is not gotten to hot so the solder melts. Most times buried lines do not have soldered joints under ground.
    George

    Making sawdust regularly, occasionally a project is completed.

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